As some of the UK’s largest clothing and shoe retailers, you have a lot on your plate at the moment.

I am concerned about news reports of UK retailers cancelling orders. Millions of people living in very poor countries with little or no social security could be left destitute.

Please will you confirm – on public record – that all your brands will honour contracts with suppliers made before the UK went into lockdown on 23 March 2020?

This must include payment on the original contractual terms for finished products and payment for spend on unfinished products.

Please can you also confirm how you are making sure that the people who make your clothes and shoes are:

paid for the work they have done

paid while there is no work

provided with suitable protective equipment where work is ongoing?

Please will you publish answers to these questions on an accessible part of your website so that consumers like me – and more importantly the suppliers and workers concerned – can be reassured about your actions?